Ethics and Politics in Underworld: Ethical Choice of Nuclear Arms Race and the Reconstruction of the Memory of Cold War Paranoia

The front page of New York Times of October 4, 1951 was dominated by two parallel titles: on the left "Giants Capture Pennant, Beating Dodgers 5-4 in 9th on Thomson's 3-Run Homer," on the right "Soviet Second Atom Blast in 2 Years Revealed by U.S.; Details Are Kept a Secret." Drawing on these two events, Don DeLillo's massive novel Underworld, in its reminiscent narration, delineates the fierce confrontation between the two Cold War rivals in a panoramic fashion. In particular, Underworld exposes the ethical choice made by the U.S. and the Soviet Union which were competing for supremacy in the nuclear arms race, and the serious ethical consequences brought about to their citizens and the ecological system. It offers a critique of their engagement in ideological competition and adherence to deep-rooted hostility to and prejudice against each other. As an epic novel about the Cold War, Underworld reconstructs the cultural memory of the Cold War paranoia of that special political climate.